Grammar for Kinders

As I read the selections, I tried to think of how I could put this on my students' level.





Grammar for Kindergartners, sounds impossible. During my first year of teaching, I actually thought it was impossible. I was ecstatic when my students were just using English whether the grammar was flawed or flawless. However, as the year progressed I received my own "AHA" moment. It was towards the end of the year and one if my students needed to go to the bathroom because they always need to go to the bathroom. I was writing on the board and I heard it..."I can go to the bathroom." Now I hear this all year and I soon learned to let it go, but made sure that I responded in the correct way so that they could know what it was supposed to sound like. This time, however, I never had the chance to correct him. Before I could turn around another student told them, "you gotta say can I go to the bathroom."

Did that really just happen? Now granted it still was not completely correct but for kindergarten I was very happy. Now that I have gotten that story out of my system, I will relate to the objective here. :)


I do not really "teach" grammar in my classroom nor is there a standard on our ELL report card that states - this student uses grammar correctly. I help my students to learn the vocabulary that is needed before they can learn the grammar to put them together. I do not want you to think that everyone in our class is using broken English, that no one ever corrects it, and I send them to first grade just like that. I have learned through many courses in higher education that if you correct someone too many times, that it is possible that the student will stop participating in the lesson that is going on. So my way of teaching grammar is by example.


As I mentioned earlier, when the students stated something incorrectly, I corrected them in my response. Take for example: student - I can go to the bathroom, teacher - yes, you CAN/MAY go to the bathroom. I made sure that I put emphasis on the word that was needed. We did this a lot during whole group lessons, mini-group lessons, and one on one.

Readings:

Standard English + Good Grammar = Great Teacher?

I do agree that there really is no such thing as standard English. As Richard Nordquist mentioned, English that is standard in one area, may not be spoken the same way, like a dialect. I relate this to being like a home. Not every one's home is the same, my home could be a house, someone else an apartment, or for others a cardboard box. I do agree that there is a certain type of English that should be spoken in certain situations. You would not talk the same way at work, that you would hanging out with your friends at a football game.

The articles stated grammar is something that is very important. I believe that being able to express yourself in an "educated" way can help you to get to higher places, especially in some careers. I think that teachers should show students the structure to write and speak. I do not think that the lesson in teaching it should be structured. Students learn more when they can put themselves into what they are learning, so using the deductive way of teaching is probably the strategy that I like most for teaching grammar. I would use this strategy in English Learner classrooms or a General Education class.